Ask HN: Is C# developer to electrical engineer a vertical or horizontal move?

[wethebestcoder]

I've been a C# dev for long enough that I feel like I've plateued.

Meanwhile Im in love with microchips like the esp8266. I see dirt cheap intelligent single purpose devices opening up a lot of new opportunities.

But how do you compare a good C# developer to an electrical engineer? Would it be a step up or just a step sideways?

When I say electrical engineer what I mean is the person who designs electrical systems on PCBs using software like Autodesk Eagle.

[airbreather]

First thing, before anything else, buy the new version of "The Art of Electronics" and read it.

[wethebestcoder]

I'll keep that in mind because I actually prefer learning from books. What's really interesting is that the rules of the system come from nature itself. So by knowing how a computer system works from the point at which its components interact with the physical world to how the software works would give you some kind of technical mastery that has to be good for something.

[airbreather]

It's called "The Art..." for a reason, it should maybe called "The Black Art..." - robustness of the kind required for real world use by arbitrary punters is surprisingly hard to achieve, there are lots of tricks and traps that you need to become aware of.